On Tuesday, the Education Arcade of The Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) released the beta version of a massively
multiplayer online (MMO) game for high school students to learn
geometry, algebra, probability, statistics, and biology.

The Radix Endeavor, aligned with the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards, takes
place in an earth-like world during a Renaissance-like era.
Students play characters who take on quests, each tied to a
particular content area. Through exploration and MMO
collaboration, teens conduct their own experiments to develop
hypotheses and figure out how the mathematical and biological
systems function in Radix's virtual world, while taking
advantage of the game-based environment to, for example, speed
up time to see the outcome of a decision that — in a
real-world experiment — would take months.

Start your own adventure on the island of Ysola by creating a
temporary account (feel free to use a fake email address),
selecting a "teacher" account, entering "MIT" as your school,
and choosing it from the drop-down menu, too:

The Education Arcade seeks high school math and biology
teachers to enroll their high schoolers in a large-scale pilot
test this semester. To join the pilot, see other ways to get
involved, and receive updates, visit

Radix is funded by the Gates Foundation, and under development
at the MIT Education Arcade in collaboration with Filament
Games. Learn more, including how to participate in professional
development at MIT, by checking out

"I knew that was the key piece of information because nothing
else paved the way. I thought that 4 multiplied by an unknown
number added to 3 (4 and 3 being the numbers in the ratio)
multiplied by the same number would be 154. A more efficient
way of saying that is 4a + 3a = 154. I am not so good at
algebra so I tried dividing 154 by 7.... At first, I had
accidentally erased the top of the 9 in 297 and mistook it for
a 4. Later I saw my mistake and had an 'aha!' moment.... I was
stuck at that part for quite some time. Then I remembered that
a percent is just a different form of a fraction...."

This Sunday may be Grandparents' Day, but a math professor
began blogging earlier this year about public awareness and art
projects that use grandmothers' pictures, names, and
connections to science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM).

With "Grandma Got STEM," Harvey Mudd College's Rachel Levy
"counters the implication that grannies
(gender + maternity + age) might not easily pick up on
technical/theoretical ideas." Levy has already posted over a
hundred times, each named in honor of a "STEM-ma" (with that
100th post recalling one of her own, especially endearing,
STEM-related memories: "the windshield factor"). Along the way,
she has featured dozens of mathematicians, such as

Levy, whose research interests include the hydrodynamics of
whale flukeprints, hopes to involve more school-aged children
in the project. She has worked with teachers to create school
assignments, and has started to make contact with leaders of
after school clubs. Grandma Got STEM has already featured
student submissions from preschoolers to high schoolers, who
have interviewed their own grandmothers or scientists in
their communities.

"There have been great discussions on the listserv and it would
be wonderful to continue them in person. On a more personal
note, I will be at the fall conference and would love to speak
and brainstorm with other Algebra teachers. I plan to modify
some of the lessons in the modules."

- Caryl, posted to the middle school (grades 5-8) discussion
group of the Association of Math Teachers of New York State

Starting Tuesday, you can download the intellectual thriller
about four mathematicians that swept best feature film, best
actor, and best editor honors at the 2012 Silicon Valley
Film Festival.

First featured in these pages last June, "Travelling Salesman"
focuses on the ethical implications of four fictional
mathematicians' breakthrough discovery about the most vexing
open question in computer science. To learn more about the
mathematics of traveling salesman problems, check out the Ask
Dr. Math conversations

Traveling Salesman Problem: Is there an easy solution to the
"Traveling Salesman Problem"?

Purchase the digital version of the movie — with instant
streaming and HD, DRM-free downloads for iPads, Xbox, and any
device that plays MP4s — directly from the filmmakers or
via iTunes.

This newsletter is provided as a service of The Math Forum, an online educational community for mathematics hosted by Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

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